1. Technical Field
This disclosure generally relates to a system such as a mobile data network with multiple subsystems, and more specifically to a method and apparatus for validating the system with trusted platform modules and virtual platform modules.
2. Background Art
Mobile phones and other devices are increasingly demanding large amounts of data to be sent over mobile data networks. Mobile data networks have evolved as well to provide the data services that new mobile devices require. Mobile data networks include very expensive hardware and software, so upgrading the capability of existing networks is not an easy thing to do. It is not economically feasible for a mobile network provider to simply replace all older equipment with new equipment due to the expense of replacing the equipment. For example, the next generation wireless network in the United States is the 4G network. Many mobile data network providers are still struggling to get their entire system upgraded to provide 3G data services. Immediately upgrading to 4G equipment is not an economically viable option for most mobile data network providers. In many locations, portions of the mobile data network are connected together by point to point microwave links. These microwave links have limited bandwidth. To significantly boost the throughput of these links requires the microwave links to be replaced with fiber optic cable but this option is very costly.
To facilitate additional capacity on mobile networks, a new “edge server” or “breakout system” is being developed by International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). The breakout system or edge server is part of as a Mobile Internet Optimization Platform (MIOP). The MIOP component corresponding to each basestation is referred to as a MIOP@NodeB. The MIOP@NodeB offloads data streams such as internet data streams for at the edge processing while passing through the voice streams to the backend of the network. As used herein, the term “breakout system” in general means a system that connects between two computer systems on a data network and passes on some of the data on the data network between the two systems while breaking out for local processing other data streams normally flowing between the two computer systems on the data network. A breakout system could broadly be construed as a network processing device or mechanism capable of routing all or part of the network traffic on a network data path between two other nodes through itself.
The breakout system comprises multiple subsystems. Further, the breakout system may be deployed as an appliance. Just like in other complex systems, it is important to be able to validate the software loaded in the various subsystems of the breakout system to insure the integrity of the entire mobile data network.